So much average

Simply A Masterpiece

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The Body Beneath (1970)* 1/2 (out of 4)A family of vampires realize that their bloodline is coming to an end so they must try and get new people in so that their family tradition can continue.THE BODY BENEATH is one of five films that director Andy Milligan made in Britian and believe it or not this film has some fans out there. Sadly, I am not one of them as I found this to be yet another extremely boring period piece that just didn't have enough working in it to keep me interested. It's strange but the more Milligan films I see the more of them I don't like but at the same time I find myself becoming a fan. That might sound weird because how can you become a fan by watching bad movies? Perhaps it's the fact that no matter which Milligan movie you're watching you can tell that it's a Milligan picture. I must admit that I somewhat admire the fact that he was making these period looking films on such a small budget. There are all sorts of technical issues with this film and there really aren't any "good" performances. With that said, the film remains mildly entertaining just because of that weird factor that the director always managed to bring to his pictures.

A loosely threaded film - it's "stringy", cheesy and rather lame at best. It's a loosely knitted story and seems to be quickly thrown together to make a fast buck, yet it does get a little bit interesting once you get past the first 45 boring minutes of the film. I would have liked this film better if the first part of the film held my attention better - the last part of this one is pretty good though.Green vampresses - and not all of their hands are covered in green... sloppy make-up here. The rest of the characters are fine, I just did not like the three green vampresses, rather silly to me. The best character in the entire film is the blood sucking priest.Andy Milligan wrote and directed this - and for some weird reason I preferred his 'Guru, the Mad Monk' over 'The Body Beneath'. I guess "Guru" had enough cheesiness and strangeness to make me giggle harder.3/10

A well constructed and quite novel vampire-piece from the late schlock auteur Andy Milligan about an ancient all-English clan of Un-Deads who, true to vampire tradition, feed-off their mortal relations.I understand Milligan based many of his horror films on classic literary works - in this case Stoker's 'Dracula' - hence the real and fictional locations of Highgate Cemetery and 'Carfax Abbey' as well as a trio of vampire gals; whose green make-up looks admittedly silly, but they're used to quite creepy effect. The 16mm hand-held camera also works to the film's advantage (ala 'The Evil Dead').Acting all-round is extremely decent; especially Gavin Reed in the central role of Reverend Ford - he is every bit the prissy English churchman as scheming master vampire.Highlights include; the first appearance of the vampire gals at Highgate ('Hellooooo'), the not-so-good Reverend's wife Alicia (Susan Heard) plunging her knitting-needles into a maid's eyes, the Ford-clan rising to attend the climactic blood-feast, the film's most-mentioned scene where vampire Elizabeth (Judith Heard) is very vocal in her objection to the Rev's plan to move to the U.S.My personal favourite though, is where hunchback servant Spool (Berwick Kaler) is crucified by the green-faced gals for disobedience to which the vampire Reverend deliciously croons "Never cross me again Spool(!)"Recommeded for all fans of traditional, Gothic vampire thrillers.

One of The better Milligan films that actually sort of works if you give it a a few allowances. One of Milligans English films, this movie actually is a good...okay...just...story of a vampires and such trying to get new blood into their family. (that maybe giving too much away, or not since the movie doesn't wholly make sense.) Technically competent which only has to survive the need to keep all of the actors in close huddle and some make up that would be too thick even on stage, this is a decent drama/thriller thats actually one of the few Milligan movies I can recommend on any level. Sure it dances the fine line around being a bad movie (and crosses over into that territory a few times) but its the sort of time killer you may actually watch to the end. Both better and worse than I'm making out this maybe the Milligan movie to start with if you have a yen so long as you understand what you're getting yourself into.